Taking Care of You
by Kh-hp-Disneylover809
Summary: Sequel to "There to Catch You", Reno's girlfriend Athena gets ill with Geostigma so he goes to look after her but she tells him not to because he could get sick. Here Reno proves how much he loves her and how he'd never leave her. Rated for the illness and light kisses! Reno/OC!


Taking Care of You

_**Description: Reno's girlfriend, Athena, has Geostigma so he goes to look after her but she tells him not to because he could get sick. Here Reno proves how much he loves her and how he'd never leave her. **_

__Reno watched helplessly as the offending black ooze swim on Athena's milky colored skin, causing her pain. Ever since Athena began taking care of the victims, she began getting sick herself yet she never faltered in showing her faith for the sick people until she collapsed in one of the patient's rooms. The patient, who was an elder man whose body was absolutely ravaged by illness, did everything he could for her but couldn't reach the speaker hooked up in his room to speak with the Turks. What seemed like hours later, Tseng arrived to give the patients a daily dose of their medicine and noticed Athena looking all corpse like in the patient's bed. When Tseng inquired the man about it, he flew into a story of how Athena had Geostigma for the longest time, as he noticed, but it didn't take effect until that day.

With the help of Rude, Tseng carried the young twenty two year old into her bedroom and began tending to her mark. He used all his Cure materia to halt the flow of the stigma but God knew it wouldn't last that long. The Geostigma illness was absolutely lethal and life-threatening so no Cure items in the book could heal it—Tseng tried multiple times on various patients to heal them of the illness but it only proved futile. Unknown to many, Tseng hated being helpless in situations like the stigma—He hated seeing so many, especially children, suffer and die because of Sephiroth's selfishness.

Reno didn't know what to do; he hated seeing his girl suffer the illness but he couldn't just abandon her in her time of need. For the first time in his life, he felt like he needed to take care of her and had to support her through it. What worried him was that Athena wasn't waking up yet but she wasn't dead because some pain-filled whimpers escaped her lips. Reno felt helpless because he couldn't do anything to ease her pain so instead he held her trembling, cold pale hand in both of his and began to warm it.

"Thenie," he whispered, praying she could hear him, "please wake up. Please don't leave me." He normally wouldn't say that in front of other people but he wanted her to hear how much she meant to him. "I don't wanna lose you so please wake up." He kissed her forehead with enough pressure to wake her up but she didn't react to it.

Tears welled up in Reno's blue eyes when he saw how corpse like she looked. She was always so colorful and full of life but now she looked dead and cold. Her usually flushed skin was now deathly pale and her slender body looked so frail and childlike. Before he could stop it, a tear fell from his eye and landed on her arm. It felt nice that he was alone with her because he could cry as much as he wanted without Rude or Tseng watching him.

"Baby," whispered Reno, kissing her cold lips, cheeks, and forehead, "please don't leave me here alone. I don't know what I'd do without you." To many he'd probably sound like an overly-dramatic fool but to himself he sounded like a man in love.

Because of the emotional wear in his mind, he rested his head down next to her and closed his eyes, hearing the lullaby of her breathing fill his ears.

…

A gentle touch woke Reno and he sat up to see Athena's chocolate colored eyes look up at him wearily. She looked so beautiful and angelic to him even though the black ugly mark infested her skin. The stigma took its toll on her body because she looked so weak and frail like never before. Her cheeks looked sunken and her eyes looked so big and innocent that it made Reno want to break down again.

"Hey, baby," he whispered, his voice hoarse with relief and concern, "how do you feel?"

Athena smiled weakly, making Reno lose what little control over his tears he had left. "I feel okay," she whispered wanly, using all of her strength to sit herself up. "My body aches the way it would during the body flu but all in all I'm okay-ish. You're crying," she added, gently wiping his teardrops with a tender hand. "Did someone die?" She obviously was unperturbed by the fact that she could have died but Reno was too relieved to be angry.

"I almost lost you," he gasped, clenching his trembling hands in fists. "Don't you remember collapsing?"

"No," said Athena with a shake of her head. "I was tending to someone when I felt pain on my body then nothing. It's like something's blocking the memory."

"Ah, who cares," said Reno dismissively, stroking her cheek. "I love you, Athena." With that, he pressed his forehead against hers and moved in for a kiss but Athena pushed him back.

"You can't, Reno," she said sadly. "You'll get sick too."

"Athena," said Reno, "the Geostigma only affects those who had been too close to the Lifestream during the meteor fall and God knows how close you were. That's why you're sick; it's not contagious. Why it decided to appear now, I don't know, but what I do know is that I'll never leave you to fend for this on your own." His sea green eyes were intense as they pierced into hers; what happened to the happy, go lucky Turk everyone knew?

"I love you," she sighed, relief dissipating her stress. With that said, she bent forward and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips.

Before she pull back, Reno placed a gentle hand on her back and pressed her lips tighter against his as if it was the last day they'd be together. As they kissed, Athena felt tears build up in her eyes because she was so relieved yet afraid that Reno would be with her during this period. Her fear was necessary because she would probably die to the stigma.

When they finally pulled back, Athena rested her head on Reno's chest and began to cry. A tender touch stroked her brown hair and comforted her. If Reno listened carefully, he would have heard her whisper, "Thank you, Reno."

_**A/N: Another Reno/Athena vignette! I hope you enjoy it! Please read and review!**_


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